Many articles about diabetes appear daily, many of them very interesting. The intent here is to make some of these available for others who may not see them or have bypassed them. I will try to comment briefly on those I have grouped or on an individual article. This is not guaranteed to be a daily post, but I hope that this will give you ideas for your own research or blog posts. Please talk to your doctor about medical problems.

06 October 2010

Some foods you should eat – Part 1

As with so many other foods that have gotten a bad rap by supposedly independent scientists without an agenda, research will normally out these scientists that had agendas and falsely reported misguided research that wrecked havoc on certain foods.

No, I am not telling you that you must eat certain foods. If after reading this, you feel differently – that is your prerogative. I just hope that these foods become more interesting and potentially part of what you eat.

Eggs have had the bad rap because of the cholesterol in the yoke of the egg. Even the ADA has labeled them bad because of the foods they are eaten with, like sausage or bacon. Even added how they are cooked. I eat eggs regularly and use them in various recipes. Do I believe that the bad rap they have received is valid? To a point, but not enough to eliminate them from my menu. Mostly the bad rap is is because they are lumped in with other heavy cholesterol foods and not thought about if eaten by themselves.

Are eggs bad for your heart? If not eaten in moderation, they can have an effect, but generally this cholesterol is part of the dietary allowance you eat every day and should not create problems unless you eat more than two per day. The experts of today generally agree that one egg per day causes no problems. The body normally will compensate by producing less cholesterol. They also agree that saturated fats and trans fats have a far greater influence on raising blood cholesterol.

Many people are so worried about the cholesterol in an egg that they forget about the nutrients and good parts of the egg. Egg yolks contain lutein and zeaxanthin, compounds that research today links with reduced risk for age-related macular degeneration (AMD), the leading cause of blindness in people over 50. Even the American Heart Association has removed the limit on the number of egg yokes a person may or may not consume in a week.

A compound in eggs, lecithin, can reduce the absorption of cholesterol. Phospholipid, or lecithin, found in egg markedly inhibits the cholesterol absorption. The inhibition is not 100 per cent, but does demonstrate why eggs are not the bad guys of dietary cholesterol.

For those of you insisting on specialty eggs, please read this. Some will insist on cage free or range eggs, but they have no more nutrition than every-day white shelled eggs. The demand is high for these specialty eggs and it does cost more to produce them. I am just happy that I did not grow up in a culture that likes fertile eggs or fertile eggs with the embryos at a certain age.

Also remember the key to lowering cholesterol is exercise and if you have diabetes it will aid in lowering blood glucose levels as well. If you are medically unable to exercise then you will need to depend on your doctor for advice to control cholesterol and blood glucose levels.

About Me

I am enjoying life, despite diabetes type 2. I am retired and enjoying the time I have for writing and photography. I was diagnosed with type 2 on Oct 2003, on oral meds for 4 months and they were doing nothing to really improve my daily readings. By cutting my carbohydrates I received the most improvement, but still not enough. Then I requested insulin, even though I did not like the thought of needles. That brought about the biggest change and A1c's in the lower 6's and upper 5's. Now I am working at maintaining them under 6.0 and hopefully nearer 5.5.